Just picked up one of these, with a nice case, for $40.00. If you have one, post a comment below, I am curious what you think! Generally they are solid instruments, but it is a good idea to try before you buy (be careful with eBay), as I have run into a few clunkers and shoddy repairs. I rarely see Goya guitars on the market as once players get their hands on them they do not let them go. But, it is certainly good enough for anything I will be doing with it, especially at the bargain basement price I paid for it. Also, the sealed tuners are cheap and do not hold as well as I would like them to.
The sounds is well balanced from string to string, though I think it would be nice to find a compensated bridge saddle as the intonation is just a touch off. The neck has a pleasantly rounded profile that is fairly slim and fast, and the tone is very rich and loud. It has a good set-up and there are no repairs or unsightly damage to speak of. This guitar had been played regularly and was kept in a loving home, so it did not really need much attention when I got it. The bridge is painted to look like ebony. The neck is mahogany with a rosewood overlay and a silkscreen inlaid logo that is fading, and the fretboard is rosewood too. I am going with laminate until I figure out otherwise. The top appears to be solid spruce, and the back and sides are mahogany, though I cannot tell if it is solid or a laminate. The triple-bound body has the traditional broad-shouldered shape, and there are 14 frets clear from the body. The “G” might stand for “guitar” or “Goya” or “good enough.” Who knows? As far as the “312,” that is anybody’s guess. The model name is a complete mystery, as this is pretty much a copy of the Martin D-18 dreadnaught and nothing seems to correspond to this. I am thinking it is from the early 1990s.
#GOYA CLASSICAL GUITAR G 13 SERIAL NUMBER#
The G-312 guitar that we are looking at today was probably built in Korea, though it is hard to get an exact date as there is no serial number and very little information about these instruments online.
Goyas are generally good guitars, though they were not wildly successful. Martin gave up on this experiment in 1996 and eventually sold the name to a food company. Initial production was in Japan, and eventually was moved to Korea. So, the Goya brand was Martin’s effort to fight back. This was particularly important to them as around that time many Japanese companies were building guitars that looked just like theirs, and it was hurting their business. Martin bought the Goya brand in 1976 and used it to produce budget instruments overseas. Goya guitars were an offshoot of Sweden’s Levin, and were an effort for the company to enter the US Market. This is an early 1990s Goya G-312 6-string dreadnaught.
Today we are going to look at something a little different today - a pretty cool budget acoustic guitar that I picked up from Craigslist.
0 kommentar(er)
